Krissy Matthews, who is also half Norwegian was born 25th May 1992, and now at the rare age of 16, has already managed to do a lot of things a normal young teenager wouldn’t. Krissy’s father, Keith Matthews first got him up on stage at the age of three, but Krissy got his first electric guitar at the age of eight, and from then on it was an upwards spiral.
It all started in August 2004, when Krissy sat in with John Mayall and the BluesBreakers in the Notodden Blues Festival, Norway. He played two nights running, and from that, Krissy had national radio and press interviews and sat in with several top Norwegian acts. Krissy went back in October 2004, where he appeared on “God Morgen Norge”, Norway’s national breakfast TV, did a radio session with Knut Reiersrud for “BluesAsylet” on NRK P2, and performed live on stage with Larry Burton (Albert Collins, John Lee Hooker, Albert King) in the club “Muddy Waters”, centre of Oslo.
When Krissy got back to the UK, he started his first band Krissy’s Blues Boys. This was a four piece, with the extra guitar added by Keith Matthews. The band did several pub gigs to get the name around, with the odd festival, and an appearance by Bernie Marsden (Whitesnake) sitting in at what of them. Krissy continued to build his name up locally.
Then about a year later, Keith Matthews went onto bass, forming a 3 piece power blues trio, and this was the line up to stay. The band used different drummers, but in July 2005, went onto record their first CD “Influences” in Timeless Studios with Mark Freeman on Drums and Keith Matthews on Bass. This was to be sold just at gigs, but then in February 2006, Krissy signed to Via Music in Norway, and the CD was released in Scandinavia. April 2006, Krissy went over to Norway for a press weekend to promote the CD. This included “God Morgen Norge” again and several radio and newspaper interviews such as “Dagbladet”, “Vaart Land” and “Aftenposten”. Since then, the band have developed, had reviews in several magazines and newspapers, including a 7 page feature of Krissy and the band in the British national magazine “Blues Matters.
February 2007, they went of to Norway to record the second CD “No Age Limit”, in Juke Joint Studios, Notodden. This was followed up by their first trip to France in March the same year, where they performed the Blues Autour Du Zinc festival, where several people were talking about them as “the highlight of the festival”. The CD was released in August 2007, and to celebrate that, the band did a 15 date tour of Scandinavia, which included playing Rockefeller, Oslo supporting Walter Trout, and going of for two nights in the Mojo Blues Bar, Copenhagen. That same year, the band also went of to Europe in October, to celebrate the release. This included 3 shows supporting Robben Ford, as well as 4 club dates in and around Belgium and Holland. April 2008, the band went of for their second tour of Europe, where they performed 15 shows in 15 days. Venues for that tour included Francis in Wetzlar, the OkieDokie in Neuss and Tell Saal in Bern. Since then the band did a weeks tour of Norway in May and September 2008 and a 20 date tour of Europe in October/November, as well as numerous gigs across the UK. They have just finished recording the next CD, which is planned for a September/October 2009 release across Europe. The current line up is Keith Matthews on Bass, and Chris Sharley on drums.
The band have performed in 12 different countries including England, Wales, Scotland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland, and Portugal where Krissy performed to 15,000 people alongside Brazilian blues player Nuno Mindelis. Krissy has also performed live on stage with players such as Walter Trout, Jeff Healey and Devon Allman.
The band have also performed at several festivals including Gloucester Blues, Tring Blues, Nantwich Jazz & Blues, Finnafjorden Blues, Eikerapen Roots, Skalldyr Festival, Blues Autour Du Zinc, Monsteras Blues, Fredrikstad Blues, Hemnes Blues, Ingolstadt Blues, Alta Blues and Soul, Dalane Blues, Tribal Gathering, Blues on the Farm, Dundee Blues Bonanaza, Crawley Folk, Canal Street Jazz & Blues, Leyhill Music Festival, Maryport Blues Festival, Colne Blues Festival, Festi Avante!, Appleby Blues and Banbury Blues.
